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Candios: Planet of Mystery
Not that long ago...at least on the show, Candios' orbit was raided by Decepticons. The Noble, Magnificent, Fabulous, and Grandiose Sky Lynx single handedly took on the Decepticons in the area, but failed to learn exactly what was stolen. This leads to the mystery of the planet itself, as Candios is surrounded by satellites of ancient origin. Initial scans of the planet are hospitable to life, thriving even! It is a veritable Earth, with all of its natural power sources. Yet it remains uncolonized! What secrets does the planet harbor? Why have near cataclysmic tremors been detected since initial reports? In order to know and anticipate the Decepticons, the Autobots have brought out a scouting team to find a few answers.... Arcee has pilot, too! ...Oh, but not Space Pilot. X) Not a biggie. Deliverance has arrived. Arcee is seated at the shuttle's auxiliary controls seat, and she's taken this vessel out to Candios to hopefully get some answers. "Not too long ago, the Decepticons came out here, and...took *something* from the satellites orbiting Candios. Then they got out of here quickly. According to Sky Lynx, who's been monitoring this situation, the entire system is beginning to deteriorate," she explains to the others aboard the vessel. "Hopefully, we can find out what it is they took, and why it's having this effect." Deliverance is, currently, seated in one of the seats behind the others. He's just along in case they need a tech for some reason, or someone to do some searching. Whatever it is they might need. He's also very relaxed at the moment, settled into his seat sideways, one foot up on the next over, leaned back against the outer wall of the shuttle. His banjo is out, and he's quietly strumming a classical earth tune he'd picked up during his rest period on the planet. "So..we basically have no clue what they took or what this place is, or what we're really doing here?" he asks in an amused, even cheerful tone, "sounds like a Friday night ta me.." Who has two hands and doesn't give a flip about the status of a deteriorating solar system? Dealer. ...and just about any other mercenary type you care to mention. The Universe is a big place - things explode, implode, fall apart, and disappear or reappear due to "singularities" (which Dealer is convinced is scientist code for 'I don't know what this is') all the time. As a result, the fact that he's here just to provide fire support is only surprising to the extent that the job is not paying particularly well. After all, it's not like a large segment of the war effort is being channeled into some backwater world in the middle of nowhere. Arcee's voice is barely registered, and the words strike no special chords other than to strum the same notes that have been played since the dawn of the war. "It's probably a super-weapon, space monster, or some kind of device that will eventually reveal that this entire system is some kind of artificial experiment or space ship that Autobot command will ultimately want to get involved in and blow up in our faces." Arcee chuckles at Deliverance. But she likes him and his banjo, so she lets him play on. "Seriously, this is a fairly out of the way quadrant. Why would the Decepticons make a special trip out here, then run like the wind when we run patrol through here to see what they're up to? Thankfully the planet isn't populated by a civilization anymore, but...obviously, the Decepticons were very interested in what they left behind. Enough to risk their metal hides on making a run here to collect it." She nods at Dealer's observation, wags a finger at him, and says, "Exaaactly, which is why we need to get a jump on this before we have to play defense." The planet Candios is as picturesque as the images provided by Sky Lynx. Purple hued skies with gossamer clouds, a vibrant lush green to the flora, even neon in some parts! As the shuttle does its flyover at first, some sort of animals take flight, leaving trails of coloring behind them which dissipate after a few moments. A painting come to life. When the shuttle sets down in a clearing, several tall-legged reptiles of some sort bound away as Earth deer. The ground is a tall grass, but when you're a giant robot, it's not that big of a problem to work with. The atmosphere gives off strange readings though, as if the laws of physics were different here. By initial calculations, those flying animals must be rather strong to sustain flight for any length of time here! "Okay...we're getting readings of basically *everything*. Pick up a scanner and set it to 'all'. We're going to need rad count, atmospheric composition, tidal variances...you name it, we need it. Creature-wise, we shouldn't encounter anything more than local flora or fauna, but...be watchful, just in case the Decepticons put something down here we don't know about. I think they just did whatever they did up by the satellites, but it's having a profound effect down here." Arcee parks the shuttle, then hands Deliverance and Dealer both handheld scanners and takes one herself. Deliverance leans to look slightly out the window, "It's like someone shook a Dr. Seuss book out an made a planet out of it.." he muses as he eyes those brilliant colors, "shame that this beauty, like Cybertron's, seems doomed to be despoiled by the ravages of this eternal war.." He steps out of the shuttle and onto the ground, looking around then back to Arcee, "I'm going to see what I can pick up with my sensors Arcee.." he offers, pushing up into the air and transforming..with fairly disastrous consequences. The engines of the cyber-rotor are normally so near as to silent that most don't even hear it. Almost instantly though, those rotors are maxxed out, struggling to maintain loft against the strangely altered physics..he ends up transforming just in time to avoid crashing down again. "We may have a problem.." he says, grunting as he checks how much energon he just burned to try and get enough lift to even hover properly, "I'm grounded..and..I'm really hoping that our shuttle is going to have the thrust to get us up off planet.." As if on Arcee's command, the ground shakes, sending the fauna into a tizzy, leaving trails of light in their wake. A distant mountainside rumbles, sending a landslide down into the nearby valley... "Wow. What kind of resistance does it feel like you're encountering when you're trying to take off?" Arcee asks. "The gravity shouldn't be giving you THAT much of a problem. Maybe we're less fuel-efficient here, but...!" She glances over her shoulder at the rumbling mountainside, and instinctively points the scanner in that direction. "What's going on with this place?" "Autobots always play defense. That's the rules, isn't it? Otherwise we'd be officious, unwanted, self-aggrandizing peacekeepers," Dealer says with a half smirk as he loads up when the shuttle touches down. The turbulence causes the dour machine to grimace slightly. Another day, another Shanix. But the price of money is vigilance, is it not? The rumble of the vehicle reacting to the 'physics' is noted as he stands. Dealer's heavy rifle is slung over his shoulder and his explosives properly packed in stabilizing gel satchels. He takes one of the scanners offered by Arcee and looks outside. "Sure." Aside from the scanners, Dealer trains his formidable sensor arrays and his scouting experience towards the surrounding terrain, half expecting an ambush as he breaks the seals and heads towards the outside. Proverbial (and maybe some actual) gears in his head spin rapidly as he takes a look outside. "Well, this sure isn't normal," Dealer notes dryly. "Just a hunch, but I'd suggest not looking for a thing, but looking for a lack of a thing. If I had to guess, whatever's holding this dirt ball together has left the system. Look for the hole it left." The Autobots take their initial readings, doing the legwork necessary to form a proper evaluation of the planet. Several unusual animals appear from the woodland's edge. They...they're metal! A strange variant of a flying squirrel examines the craft and the crew. Daring to get a closer look, the creature leaps from an organic tree, spreads its glider arms and bursts upwards and forwards, landing on the shuttle. Upon closer examination, it has a teeny hoverturbine as his main body! A few more follow suit, doing their best to scramble up and over the energon resevoirs on it as if they knew what was there. Deliverance hmms as he looks around, stooping down to examine the flora around them, running a few scans, then looking back towards where the fauna were flying by. "I don't know Arcee.. Whatever it is that's weird about this planet, I don't think it's something recent.." he says as he looks back towards their shuttle. "See, here's the thing. If whatever the Decepticon's did had caused this, I'd expect that all the animals would be struggling the same as we're struggling. But, since the animals seem to function more or less as expected, I'd say that they've learned to adapt over many generations to whatever the strange laws of this planet are..even evolved originally in it if it was far enough back." He shakes his head, "I wish we had a xenobiology expert here. I'm search and rescue..I'm sorry..I can't really make a better guess than that." He pauses and walks about, taking a few more scans before he suddenly starts laughing uncontrollably, going for a few moments before saying, "Oh Arcee, we gotta figure out how to get Buzzsaw and Laserbeak down here!" <'NEST'> Grimlock says, "Who strange people talking in me Grimlock's head?" <'NEST'> Talia McKinley Starts to say something but gets a rather sharp AHEM from just off-mic cutting her off, which usually means she was about to use language unsuitable for official military communications. <'NEST'> Poise says, "ah hello there" <'NEST'> Grimlock says, "Hello strange voices in my head!" <'Autobot'> Grimlock says, "Me Grimlock hearing strange voices in head! They very friendly and nice." <'Autobot'> Elita One says, "What....what are they telling you to do, Grimlock?" <'Autobot'> Grimlock says, "They not say do anything angry pink lady. They just say hello there!" <'Autobot'> Elita One says, "*a microburst of Yellow Alert alarms go off as if someone has their finger on the button*" <'NEST'> Poise says, "Hello...again..." <'Autobot'> Talia McKinley says, ".. I think Grimlock just has another frequency on and don't realize it, ma'am." <'Autobot'> Elita One says, "Grimlock, please call me Elita..." <'Autobot'> Elita One says, "or..Her Elita if you want." Halo has arrived. <'Autobot'> Grimlock says, "That one of strange voices! Me Grimlock want know if angry pink Elita lady hear nice lady voice too?" <'NEST'> Velum says, "Heh, you'll be getting hellos a lot since you're new." <'Autobot'> Elita One says, "Oh, I see, you're hearing the NEST channel, Grimlock. It's for Autobot/EDC coordination" <'NEST'> Poise says, "yes well, just here to do my part." <'Autobot'> Repugnus says, "And for trolling humans." <'NEST'> Velum says, "Good. I'm eager to see what you've got on the battlefield." <'Autobot'> Grimlock says, "That not what nest is for. Nest is place where sleep when recharging. Me Grimlock have best nest ever, make it out of him Sky Lynx office! Silly office way too small for big dino-bird anyway." <'Autobot'> Velum says, "I'll remember that when we get another order for five-hundred pizzas, Repugnus." <'Autobot'> Repugnus says, "But I thought you guys liked pizzas!" <'Autobot'> Velum says, "Not that many!" <'NEST'> Poise says, "I'd like nothing more than to get a few Cons in my sights." Arcee gasps in amazement as the METAL lifeforms emerge from the woods. "...Okay, this...this wasn't in the information packet Sky Lynx sent me. Hmm...they seem kind of friendly, but...but careful, don't make any sudden moves..." She watches the cute little glider creature check out the shuttle. "Look, that one has a turbine-type flying apparatus...now how come he can fly, and...and you're having so much of a problem with it, Deliverance?" She looks over at Dealer, and even though the guy kind of reminds her of Gears in attitude, she thinks he has a very good point. "Right...something /is/ missing. Well we're taking as much raw data as we can back to the scientist-types, who can hopefully determine just what it is that's missing." Terry the Turbine-squirrel chitters as he looks down at the Autobot Intel team, and scrambles around as if trying to find a way inside the energon storage bins. <'Autobot'> Blaster has encrypted this channel. "Really? We're here to wave scanners in the air and hope we wave it in the right direction that will tell the science-types what the problem is? What kind of under-funded snipe hunt is this?" Dealer doesn't seem particularly impressed by the logistical loadout of this mission. It seems to be a science mission to start - where exactly are the scientists? As a machine that generally gets dropped into dangerous situations and told to shoot or blast things into rubble, this is hardly the sort of thing that matches his expertise. Rather than go into a debate as to how they should at least make a general effort to take narrow-band scans of the area instead of metaphorically flailing about, the soldier-of-fortune watches as the indigenous fauna appears and immediately swarm the ship. "Granted, it looks like we're going to have a hell of a time trying to leave the planet, but I'm willing to bet it'll be harder if the ship is infested with vermin. I'd suggest we start zapping them, but you both look like soft-hearted sorts - does anyone have a plan relating to keeping these things from sucking our ship dry and/or getting loose on Cybertron/Earth and subsequently multiplying at an ugodly rate?" The medic glances back at Dealer, smiling slightly, "hey, look on the bright side, sounds like it's making out to be easy money for you then..right?" he suggests cheerfully. The degree to which Deliverance is upbeat is almost terrifying..he walks over closer to run a scan on the little Turbine-squirrel on the ship, smiling up at it. Then he moves one hand up towards the creature, with an energon goodie in it, trying to coax it down so he can examine it more closely. And pet it..of course he's going to pet it. Duh. "C'mere little fella, let's see just what sort of miracle you are.." he says happily. "It's an underfunded snipe hunt, it's exactly that," Arcee snaps in annoyance. She's had a bad week already, and Dealer's attitude problem is only making it a little bit worse. "I'm SORRY you don't have Hound or Sky Lynx or Perceptor or Brainstorm or ANY of those brilliant experts here. Instead, you have ME. Tough, tough drek. Here's a suggestion : DEAL WITH IT." Without waiting for an rejoinder, she heads over to Deliverance, putting a hand on his shoulder. "How about we take him back to the lab...just for scans. We can put him in a little carrier, which I think we have in the supply locker. And afterwards you can keep him? He's pretty cute. Okay, I think the rumbling was coming from the east-southeast. Let's begin going that way..." And with that, Arcee pulls out her laser-pistol, and keeping it readied at her side, leads the others beyond the clearing toward the unknown. <> A radio band frequency is caught on public channels, announcing a date back from the early war. <> The voice manages a tedious, belaboured sigh, <..uh, I found Canister and put a slug through his head. Then two more in his processor....>> Dead air fills the radio frequency for a bit, but the hum of noise emphasises that it is still broadcasting. <> Bitter laughter fills the line for a few moments. <> < spent the last of it gettin this infernal transmitter up and running. If you're hearing this, I hope to be long dead by now. And if you are hearing this and everything I set up is still running...well, you're probably dead too. Sorry pals.>> He sighs again into the mic, a mech at the end of his rope. <> Silence follows. <'Autobot'> Shiftlock says, "Grimlock, what are the voices telling you?" The southeast is towards the mountain range alright. The trees give way to plains, where several deep chasms are seen in the planet's crust. Judging by how the terrain is without moss or corrosion, it seems clear that this is a recent development. The ground here is split, going down a solid mile with no signs of metal or the like. On a happier note, the turbine squirrel eagerly pounces on Deliverance for his energon goodie, chittering noisily. Several more turbine squirrels lope along the ground, sorta like a ferret, and follow him, eager for handouts as well. <'Autobot'> Grimlock says, "Me Grimlock not know, they went sleep now. Me Grimlock come find Shiftlock when they wake up start telling stuff again!" <'Autobot'> Shiftlock says, "All right, I'll be waiting." <'Decepticon'> Kickback says, "Now where is that blasted blast off." <'Decepticon'> Onslaught says, "Where I want him to be." <'Decepticon'> Onslaught says, "What do you want with my Combaticon?" <'Decepticon'> Kickback says, "I have business with him as per his request." Great. AND emotional, too. "Sort of the point, isn't it? Why bother coming if you can't requisition someone that can do something about this place." And then the radio flares to life. "Well, that sounds swell. "Quarantined" is probably one of my least favorite words, along with "dead" and "die", and "no energon left." The warbot takes a moment to pause in thought, then walks over to the shuttle. "I assume one of you heroic types is going to want to run towards that signal. So we'll either burn up whatever fuel we have getting there, or we'll hunker down and send for backup. Either way, I suspect the shuttle is going to be necessary." <'Decepticon'> Airlift says, "They're trying to teach him to mech up." <'Decepticon'> Kickback says, "Well, if he waits *too* long I'm going to have to get the stasis cuffs." After feeding the energon goodie to his new little friend, Deliverance wanders along behind Arcee, petting the creature and running scans at the same time, <'Decepticon'> Runamuck says, "Hot." After feeding the energon goodie to his new little friend, Deliverance wanders along behind Arcee, petting the creature and running scans at the same time, "These creatures are fascinating Arcee..They're absolutely one of the most energy effecient techno-organisms I've ever encountered.." he muses. He tries something crazy, a little broad frequency, incredibly low power pulse of radio transmission towards the creature, a snippet of standard programming instruction code such as might be used to train a turbomastiff on Cybertron. Just to see what happens..this particular one suggests riding on Deliverance's shoulder. As the stranger transmission breaks through he hmms, "I hate to be a second pessimist, but that doesn't sound good. Even so, we've got plenty of back up fuel on the ship, and with Dealer to guard it, I'm confident it will remain safe. We hsould have no trouble withdrawing after a proper investigation..and if any Cybertronian still survives after this long in isolation, it's my duty to attempt a rescue..even if they were obviously Decepticons.." he says firmly, heading off in the direction of the source of the transmission if it can be determined, or the direction Arcee was going, whichever happens to be closest to the way he was walking at the moment. Yup, he's the heroic type. <'Decepticon'> Kickback says, "Not as hot as you might think." <'Decepticon'> Runamuck says, "I haven't had a thought in years, so there." <'Decepticon'> Kickback says, "I am truly defeated." <'Decepticon'> Runamuck says, "That has to be rough, since you have six of them." <'Decepticon'> Kickback says, "I thought *I* was the only one making puns about going down to defeat by de-feet." As if punctuating Deliverance's words, a few minutes after the transmission ended but stayed active, another transmission is sent out. << CRACK! thud.>> Now the transmission goes completely inactive. <'Decepticon'> Runamuck says, "That's the problem with thinking, innit?" "Yeah, let's go. Because...if that's what really happened to the last group who were here, then we'd better find out just what it was they failed to catch. C'mon." Arcee has no trouble at all leaving Dealer in the shuttle. At this point, she feels like they're better off without his attitude, anyhow. "...If that glitch takes off with us still down here," she murmurs under her breath, "We probably don't stand much of a chance, but we'll need to try." She glances toward Deliverance as the old recorded transmission ends abruptly. She only pauses and looks at him for a moment, before continuing on. "Wonder how long ago that was recorded," she murmurs. <'Decepticon'> Kickback says, "... Yes, quite." The squirrel seems to pause a moment, then happily moves up onto Deliverance's shoulder and gets comfy..finding a nice little nook to settle into in his armor. When Arcee isn't looking, he also pulls out his box of energon goodies and pushes a button, breaking the goodies into tiny little pieces and scattering them for the other cyber-critters to enjoy..he can't leave them all behind looking so cute and pathetic after all. He then hurries to catch up, unslinging his rifle just in case as he walks behind her. "Well Miss Arcee, based on the signal degradation, as well as dialectic shift and reverberation effects, accounting for atmospheric anomalies..I ain't got the foggiest notion. But if that time stamp at the start was a hint, I'd say that recording is from the first eon. Makes it a fair long time ago.." he smiles cheerfully as he looks at her, then turns serious, "And..seriously..just remember I'm pretty much worthless in a fight, especially in this new body.." he says. He transmits a little code to his new squirrel friend, instructing it where in his armor to 'hide' in case of danger or threat, a little compartment that remains protected no matter his form shift making a convenient 'home' for the squirrel. It takes two whole days to finally locate this comms tower. The message, now eerie in its own right repeats daily, always ending with that gunshot at the end. A testament to the dead, five eons in remembrance. Energon rations are handed out, and with Dealer keeping the fauna at bay, the stockpiles dwindle but are safe. Rationed use of the shuttle itself also aids the search, cutting down the searchtime by great amounts, no doubt due to Deliverance's knowledge of search patterns and proper location methods. The duo emerge finally into a small less-wooded area where vines and trees have camoflagued and overgrown a Decepticon encampment. A radio tower still functions somehow, despite the tree that actually grows in/about it, meshed together in an embrace of time. The place is a shambles, more tree and nature now than base, yet some walls hold, rusted to all get out, but they stand in a mockery of what was once some exploratory base. Of most interesting note here is a large metal un-mechly skeleton, a large snakelike wyrm of some sort that has a large series of holes in its headshell... "Don't worry, I'll protect you," Arcee tells Deliverance with a confident smile, as they head off into the unknown... Some time later, when they come across the ancient camp, Arcee steps around it cautiously as if it were a crime scene. She scans the area for unusual readings, although she suspects that whatever's tormented this place is long gone...right? The skeleton gives her a very worried pause. "Err..Arcee.." he says as he looks around, "I want you to be very, very careful moving around. Don't go near quadrant three, eight or fourteen at all..and for the love of Primus..do not touch anything at all. In fact, don't reach within point seven three microtols of any metal or technological surface. Be careful not to bump anything with your feet or legs either.." he says as he starts running scans, looking for signs of what happened here. Trying to figure out what the huge creature skeleton is..and of course, recording. He stops after a moment and pulls a little device out, setting it into place on the shoulder that isn't a perch for a local squirrel. It's a distress beacon of sorts..and begins recording everything, prepared to launch at any interruption of Deliverance's vitals and make as near to orbit as it can on it's thrusters.He doesn't know if it would be enough, but he's certainly got to try. "Why, is there radiation? Scraplets? What's in this place?" Arcee asks, her voice almost a whisper. The corpse is long dead, and shows no signs of contamination, not after this time! Closer examination reveals on its neck, behind that headcrest that gives it a distinct landshark look. And looks a lot like this except longer. http://s915.photobucket.com/user/Dsunchrono/media/Bullette.jpg.html Deliverance is positive that it had to have taken a while for it to happen, but definitive proof'd need some of the skeleton perhaps. Other items of note, are as expected a corroded and barely functional mediatable with a rusted out microphone, and...a corpse of a Decepticon, a juryrigged slugthrower in his hand. Closer examination reveals that he looks like he actually made the bullet that killed him out of one of his own fingers. Disturbing! At his side is a very rusted datapad, that must be handled with care to recover, lest it crumble apart like the rusted metal flooring. Perhaps Operations can salvage something on it...if you're careful enough! The corpse is long dead, and shows no signs of contamination, not after this time! Closer examination reveals on its neck a Decepticon symbol, behind that headcrest that gives it a distinct landshark look. And looks a lot like this except longer. http://s915.photobucket.com/user/Dsunchrono/media/Bullette.jpg.html Deliverance is positive that it had to have taken a while for it to happen, but definitive proof'd need some of the skeleton perhaps. Other items of note, are as expected a corroded and barely functional mediatable with a rusted out microphone, and...a corpse of a Decepticon, a juryrigged slugthrower in his hand. Closer examination reveals that he looks like he actually made the bullet that killed him out of one of his own fingers. Disturbing! At his side is a very rusted datapad, that must be handled with care to recover, lest it crumble apart like the rusted metal flooring. Perhaps Operations can salvage something on it...if you're careful enough! "...What kind of crime scene is this," Arcee wonders aloud, capturing much of what she sees on her visual datacapture, but not daring to get too close to anything. The dead Decepticon really gets to her, especially when she realizes the mech died by shooting himself with his own finger. There's a steady stream of information being supplied by Deliverance, in a dispassionate and calm manner, as to his findings both medical and scientific. Despite his protests, he's fairly good with tech stuff, and when need arises, willing to step up to the plate. He explains the findings with the finger bullet in a voice that betrays his sympathy for the Decepticon, as well as a deep rooted, old pain that seems to resonate with the Decepticon's pain. "We all die alone in the end Arcee..but no one should have to die without hope.." is all he says about it. Then he's moving over to that datapad and examining it, "This is an old model..the data matrix is well known..antique even.." he says as he pulls a blank datapad from a compartment. Setting it carefully by the other, he initiates an energon flow into the ancient one, just enough to wake it up as the new datapad attempts to simply duplicate the storage matrix of the ancient one. As Deliverance works, Arcee guards him, watching around the area in a paranoid fashion. Yes, it's ridiculous, this place has long been abandoned, but...all the same, she has the creeps. Badly. And she just wants out of here. Information slowly starts to trickle to life, even as the rusted out datapad needs coaxed and restarted time after time, barely held together. The information gained is fragmented and partial, but it could be possible to take that root copy of it, and learn more about the Con base here. The grim warden of Candios will watch over his planet for a bit longer, perhaps his final warning call finally having done some good. Creatures stare at Arcee from the trees, organic monkeylike lizards chatter at her, and try to ward her off, as it turns out she's actually close to their eggnests. However despite those interruptions, the place is at peace. And then the earth shakes again, sending one of the last rusty ceilings down on part of the base, sending rust dust everywhere as the ground buckles and rolls. The organics and metallic creatures alike flee as before, in a wild panic. The integrity of the base is finally fully compromised as parts of it just disintegrate. Off in the distance, the ground rolls up so high you can see trees buckle and fall! Another landslide follows the first, a mountain, weathered by eons of life, is split and ruined by the massive tremor. Huge clouds of dust and rock roll off in the distance... It becomes clear that this planet, with its mysteries, is in desperate need of a hero... Arcee winces and hunkers down until the ceiling begins to crash down. "Oh no!! Come on...time to get out!" She begins running -- or trying to, with the ground shaking at ridiculous angles and so violently it defies the upper end of the Richter scale. The tremors make her trip and fall a few times. "Augh...quick, we're almost there! Few more steps!"